• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.105-133
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• 2005

This paper attempts to verify that the economic gap between the workers in (large) firms with unions and those in (small and medium size) firms with no unions has recently been widened rapidly. A comparison of the wages of the workers belonging to the business establishments with and without trade union shows that the union premium has increased very sharply since 1997, after a relatively long periods with little changes. Also found is that union sector has witnessed a sharper decline in the share of the new entrants among workers as well as a faster increase of the average tenure of workers. These all indicate that the trade unions have forced a market equilibrium to move farther away from the competitive equilibrium in recent years.